Group Admins

Description

Addressing the theme, Empowerment in Learning Technology, we will present a 40 minute presentation

Recognising the need to further address the gaps in technology enhanced learning (TEL) provision within our institution, we have observed significant differences between institutional strategy and staff motivation. How do we draw on the areas of good practice and make these practices consistent across an institution? Postulating that a clear baseline for engagement in technology enhanced learning is essential, we will address issues about staff competency and engagement and generate reflection from the audience and share our strategy for reaching this baseline; thus, taking a step towards empowering staff in the area of learning technology.

JISC’s Building digital capability project observes that “clear and appropriate use of technology by university and college staff is vital in providing an enhanced student experience and in realising a good return on investment in the digital environment” (JISC: 2017). We will explore staff uptake of TEL initiatives and capability in relation to the terms digital native and digital immigrant and whether these concepts hold true for our context. The session will contain reflection on and from our academic staff, and working solutions based on research from the wider field. The session will be interactive, with a chance for the audience to reflect on their own institution and discuss comparisons across institutions.

Having identified and explored some of the factors inhibiting the consistent use of technology across our institution, we will describe the upcoming strategy for improving staff capability and therefore also improving the student experience. Drawing upon workshop designs from University College London, we will demonstrate an adapted approach to an ABC (Arena Blended Connected) (UCL 2016) set of workshops to be delivered to academic staff in subject-specific discipline groups. We have modified the approach to work in our own context with our own staff and so the demonstrations given will explore the UCL concept and demonstrate a version inspired by, but not identical to the ABC workshops. After briefly introducing the method and our approach to delivering these adapted workshops, we will discuss the different approaches to embedding TEL within different subject areas based on core learning outcomes and discipline-specific pedagogy, and our approach to differentiating workshops in order to make TEL relevant to subject-matter experts in a variety of different disciplines.

We will give attendees a chance to reflect on and discuss the current state of TEL in their institutions and an opportunity to discuss and ask key questions about approaches and compare practices through a series of question prompts for discussion.

References:

JISC. (2017). Building digital capability: Building capability for new digital leadership, pedagogy and efficiency. Available: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/building-digital-capability. Last accessed 16th March 2017.

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